


When You're Gone

by Northern_Lady



Series: Unfinished Marvel Tales [4]
Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Mutant Hate, Mutant Rights, Post - X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Pre Logan movie, Protectiveness, Romance, mutant abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-23 22:50:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14942856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northern_Lady/pseuds/Northern_Lady
Summary: Shortly after the Westchester Incident, while Logan lives in Mexico alone with Charles, one of the few mutants left in the world shows up to visit them. Logan doesn't trust Raven but just maybe he needs her.This story has been sitting unfinished on my computer for over a year and I am just now posting it, still incomplete, because I enjoyed rediscovering it and hoped someone else might appreciate it too.There is no major character death yet in this story but that was the original plan.





	When You're Gone

As soon as he stepped outside after giving Charles his medicine, Logan caught a familiar scent in the air. Then he saw her standing by the door of the house, a woman with blue jeans and black tank top and backpack. He wasn’t fooled by the long blonde curly hair or youthful face. He went straight over to her before she saw him. 

“Raven?” 

She turned to him a little surprised she hadn’t heard him coming. 

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he demanded. 

“It’s good to see you too Logan,” she said, unamused. 

“I doubt it. We’ve never exactly been friends.”

“Well, maybe it’s not too late for that. I brought something,” Raven pulled a backpack down from her shoulder and took out a vial of blue liquid. “This is for Charles. It will keep him stable for at least six months.” 

He regarded the vial skeptically. “Why?” Logan finally said. “What are you really trying to do?” 

Raven looked a little hurt at his words. “I’m trying to help him. There aren’t many of us left in the world and Charles helped me once a long time ago. I haven’t forgotten that.” 

“You seemed to forget it easily enough when Magneto needed your help,” Logan argued. 

Raven looked angry at his words. “Do you want Charles to get better or not?” she asked angry, but he didn’t miss the tears in her eyes. 

“What do you have? What is that?” 

“It’s a long story but the short version is that an injection of this stuff will make Charles mind as healthy as he was when he was young.” Raven said. 

“Probably worth a lot of money then. You’re just just giving it to him?” Logan knew that everything had a price. 

“Yes. I am giving it to him. I figured I ought to do at least one good deed before I die.” Raven said, still angry as she slapped the vial into his hand and turned to walk away. 

Logan had every intention of just letting her go. He didn’t trust her though and he couldn’t be sure what was really in this medicine she had brought him. “You still haven’t told me what’s in this thing,” he called after her. 

“Oh nothing much,” she said, “Just the last two years of my life.” 

He had no idea what she meant by that and he didn’t have a chance to find out. A piercing pain hit his head as everything around him seemed to go still. Charles. Charles was having another seizure. It took all of his strength to turn and make his way back to Charles. He finally got to him and injected him with his regular medicine. Logan took a look at the blue vial in his hand, shook his head, and went back outside. Raven was still there but was now crumpled up on the ground in her natural blue form. Her red hair was longer than the last time he had seen her like this and she was apparently wearing real clothes now. As much as he disliked the woman, he couldn’t just leave her there. He picked her up and carried her inside, placing her on the sofa. Her heart was still beating. She would wake up eventually. When she did she could leave. 

It was late that night when Raven woke up with a gasp. Logan was sitting in a recliner not far from her with a beer and the was TV on. She took a few gasping breaths and then gazed at him in some mixture of confusion and anger and thankfulness as if she didn’t really know how to feel. Then she grabbed her backpack from off the floor near the couch. 

“Looks like you’ve recovered. You should go now.” Logan said though not too unkindly

“It’s dark out there.” she pointed out.

“Are you afraid of the dark?” He asked, she’d never been afraid of much of anything that he knew of.

“There are wolves and jaguars out there,” She reminded him. 

“Fine. you can stay until morning,” Logan had been happy to send her away before but now he didn’t see the point in sending her out on foot in the middle of the night. 

Raven slowly let her bag drop to the floor and then collapsed back onto the couch. It was then that he realized she wasn’t healthy. She was worn out like maybe she was sick. 

“Are you alright?” he asked, not sure why he cared. 

“I’m fine, it’s just I’m getting old. I don’t heal as quickly as I used to and I can’t change forms so well anymore. When I do it slows the healing.” she admitted. 

“I’m a little familiar with getting old,” he said. 

She sat back a little further on the couch and picked up her feet to hug her knees. She looked vulnerable and scared and Logan couldn’t tell if it was an act or not. Raven had always been a good actress. 

“Did you give Charles the medicine?” she asked him. 

“Not yet.”

“Why, you don’t trust me?” she asked. 

“Why should I?” 

“Maybe cause I never did anything to you?” Raven said with a little sarcasm. 

Logan grunted at that. Then he got up and left the living room. He came back with two sandwiches and two beers, passing one of each to Raven. She ate quickly as if she were nearly starved. 

“When was the last time you had a meal?” he asked as he watched her. 

“I don’t know, maybe a week.” 

“Why? You on some sort of diet?” 

“I told you, I can’t reliably change forms anymore. Which means I can’t blend in or be employed or even go to the grocery store without risk that…” She didn’t seem to want to finish that thought. “And since my healing has slowed so much I have to be careful to stay far away from people who hate mutants. Makes it hard to get enough food.” 

Some part of him wanted to say something sympathetic but she wasn’t his problem. He told himself he didn’t care. It was probably all lies anyway except he was pretty sure that the sadness in her eyes wasn’t an act. It made him angry that he could muster up any pity for her at all. 

“Then how did you get the cure for Charles?” he finally said.

“Two years ago I knew I was getting sick so I took all the money I had and found the best doctor I could. He claimed to be an expert on mutants and he thought maybe he could help me. I stayed with the lab for six weeks while they ran tests. It turned out that he couldn’t help me. My condition has no cure. The lab where he worked had a team of doctors and one of their other projects was work on a cure for alzheimer's. So I spent the money on that instead, one of only two vials in existence at the time though they hope to make more eventually. It worked on the test patient they had. For about six months he was better. I figured if I’m gonna die anyway might as well spend my savings on something worthwhile… it took me all this time to find Charles.” 

Logan found it hard to believe she was this altruistic. He got to his feet. “I’m going to bed. There’s a blanket in the cabinet over there,” and he walked away hoping she would be gone in the morning before he woke up. 

When he woke up in the morning Raven wasn’t gone. She was sitting there on the sofa with a determined look on her face. “I want to see Charles.” 

“Go ahead. He’s out there.” Logan pointed to the place where Charles called home. 

“I didn’t expect that would be so easy,” she said and left him to go look in on Charles. 

Half an hour later she was back. “I don’t think he remembers me.” 

“Probably not,” Logan agreed, “He doesn’t remember a lot of things.” He had gathered up everything to bring Charles his breakfast and medicine and was headed out to complete the morning ritual. 

“Don’t forget this.” Raven passed him the blue vial from off the kitchen counter where he’d left it. 

“I’m not giving him that. When I come back you’d better be gone.” Logan told her. 

Raven wasn’t gone when Logan came back. In fact she was sitting at his table eating cereal. 

“What the fuck are you still doing here?” Logan said on finding her sitting there. 

“Oh. You really meant that? Because I thought you’d at least want to give me a kiss goodbye?” Raven said jokingly. 

He glared at her and then got out his own cereal bowl. “I really meant it. Finish your cereal and get the fuck out.” 

“I can’t,” Raven said. 

“What do you mean you can’t? You look like you can walk just fine to me.” 

“I mean...I’m not leaving.” 

“Look, you don’t want to fight me on this. I will win.” Logan wasn’t impressed with this game. 

“I know,” she agreed. “I’m not gonna fight you. The fact is, I have no place else to go. If I go back out there then humans are gonna burn me at the stake anyway. So if you want me gone so badly then just kill me. I won’t even try to defend myself. I’d rather die here at the hand of another mutant than ever let them at me again.” 

“That’s bullshit,” There was no way she wouldn’t defend herself if he tried to kill her. He popped out his claws and waited for her to get up and fight. 

“It’s not,” she said, not moving from where she sat but seemingly wary of what he might do next. 

Logan crossed the room rather rapidly and had his claws at her throat, stopping just millimetres from her skin. She didn’t move. She never even tried to get up. He expected she would grab his arm or do something defensive but she didn’t. Her heart was racing and there were tears on her face. “Do it,” Raven said, her jaw trembling. “Do it!” 

“Fuck!” Logan retracted his claws. She was actually serious. “I’m not gonna murder you!” He moved away from her and went back to getting his cereal. 

Raven was sitting there crying, actually crying. Then she got up from the table and fled to the bathroom. He could hear her throwing up in there multiple times. She came back as he was washing the cereal bowls and looked exhausted and haggard. She could barely look at him as she reentered the room. 

“I’m sorry…” she said quietly. “I know you don’t want me here. I’ll try to be as helpful as I can and stay out of the way. I have a little money left too to pay for food and stuff. I can take care of Charles too if you want.” 

Logan only nodded. He went outside after that to unload some stuff from the trunk of the car that he’d left there last night. He came back inside and found that Raven had started a load of laundry and was washing the kitchen floor. He had never pictured her to be one for domestic duties. Not at all. She must have been serious about wanting to be helpful. He went around her and started putting away his stuff in his room. Logan hadn’t planned to start working until after lunch and into the evening. That meant for several hours he would be stuck in the house with Raven. After only an hour she was driving him crazy with her attempts to be helpful. He found her in the kitchen rearranging everything in the cabinets. He was never going to be able to find anything if she kept that up. 

“That stuff is all fine where it is,” he said, annoyed. 

“But if you put the cereal up there and the canned goods down there it will be easier to reach,” she said, moving a box. 

Logan crossed the room and caught her arm. “I said, it’s fine where it is.” 

Raven flinched at his touch. He let go of her arm. “Sorry…” she said in a whisper and she fled the room.

A short time later Logan brought Charles his lunch and noon medications. 

“Raven is here,” Charles said as soon as Logan had entered the room. 

“Yeah, she came to visit you this morning, remember?” Logan said, holding out the pills. “Now, take these.” 

Charles took the pills before speaking again. “She’s so afraid Logan. You have to tell her not to be afraid.” 

“I don’t have to tell her anything.” Logan put Charles’ lunch on the tray in front of him. “You have to eat your lunch.” 

“But Logan, you don’t understand. She doesn’t have the same powers anymore and people have hurt her...really hurt her.” Charles was getting emotional. “She was like my sister Logan...and the things that people have done to her in the last few years...the beatings...the rape...she doesn’t deserve to be this afraid. Tell her not to be afraid. Tell her you’re not going to change your mind and kill her. She needs to know!” 

“She thinks I might kill her?” Logan usually ignored Charles’ telepathy in recent years because it wasn’t always accurate or sane anymore but this sounded legitimate. 

“Yes, she is afraid you might almost as much as she wishes you would.” 

Logan sighed. “Eat your lunch Charles.” He got up to leave Charles. 

“Tell her Logan. Tell her.” Charles called after him. 

When Logan returned Raven was sitting on the couch with a book in her lap trying to look disinterested but he could see that Charles was right. She was afraid. He wasn’t gonna give her some emotional speech like Charles wanted but he supposed he could say something. 

“Do you want a desk in your room or should I take it out? He said from the doorway. 

Raven looked up at him with questions in her eyes. 

“The office has space for a bed but you’d have more space without the desk.” He told her. 

“You mean…you’re not gonna try to make me leave?” she asked worriedly. 

“I’m not gonna try to make you leave and I’m not gonna hurt you.” 

Raven looked like she might start crying again. 

“Desk or no desk?” he asked again. 

“I don’t need a desk.” she said finally. 

Logan nodded and left to go move the desk. After he had moved the furniture out of and into the room, Logan went to work, taking the blue vial of medicine with him so Raven couldn’t give it to Charles in his absence. 

************************

Logan returned home after 3AM and found that the whole place smelled like lasagna and apple pie. He checked the fridge and found that apparently Raven had been baking. He was hungry so he microwaved one slice of the lasagna. Raven came out of her room after the microwave beeped. 

“I gave Charles his medicine like you said,” Raven said from the doorway. “He remembered me this time.” 

“He might not remember you tomorrow.” 

“Then give him the medicine I brought.” Raven said. 

“Look, we can’t just give Charles a medicine that’s still isn’t even being produced anywhere else yet. You said it had only been tested on one patient. What happened to that patient anyway?” 

“After six months he went back to how he used to be,” Raven told him. 

“That doesn’t sound very promising.” 

“Even if it only lasts six months. It’s not fair to Charles to keep it from him. He’s getting old as it is. Why not give him some clarity near the end of his life?” Raven asked. 

“How do we know that the clarity isn’t gonna shorten his life?” 

“I guess we don’t,” Raven shrugged. 

“I want to know more about this lab where you got it from,” Logan said. “Let me look into it before we even think about giving him anything.” 

Raven nodded and went to the living room and turned on the TV. Logan usually watched TV this time of night when he got done working so after he was finished eating he joined her. She seemed a little surprised when he sat down next to her on the couch rather than in the recliner. He had really only chosen the spot because it was where he always sat. It had nothing to do with her. She sat there with her feet up on the couch hugging her knees. She was still wearing real clothes. It was probably part of her efforts to hide from people. He couldn’t help but notice that the gray yoga pants she was wearing had multiple faded blood stains. She noticed he was gazing at the blood stains so he figured he might as well ask. 

“What happened there?” 

“I umm...few months back I was in Atlanta trying to buy some food. Sometimes with makeup and a pretty good disguise I could mostly manage to hide. It was raining that day though. The makeup washed right off.” Raven paused a moment before going on. “I shouldn’t have tried going out in the rain. I was hungry though and it was late at night. At the time it seemed like it might be worth the risk. Some guy saw me going into the grocery store and started yelling curses about mutant freaks. By the time I came back out he’d gathered eight more friends...a police car happened to show up before they could kill me and they ran off....I had to throw away the clothes I was wearing that day. There were too many blood stains but these...these were what I wore after I put the bandages on.” 

“I’m sorry…” Logan said, no one deserved to be treated like that. 

She shook her head. “No, I’m the one who is sorry. I should have let Hank try to cure me when I had the chance. He and Charles were right all along.” She said bitterly. 

“What exactly were they right about?” Logan wasn’t familiar with this story. 

“A long time ago they thought I should try to be more human. Erik told me they were wrong. I believed him but maybe...maybe I only believed him because he flattered me and I guess I needed to believe I didn’t have to hide. Clearly, I do have to hide.” she said, angry and hurt. “Erik was a fucking liar.” 

“Whatever Erik said to you, I doubt he was lying.” Logan told her. She hadn’t really given him the details but it seemed obvious that Magneto had probably told her she was beautiful just the way she was. 

“I thought you hated Erik? Now you suddenly think he was honest?” Raven asked, irritated. 

“Doesn’t have much to do with what I thought of him. Fact is I have eyes the same as he did. There’s nothing wrong with you the way you are.” Logan said truthfully. 

Raven let out a small gasp at his words. She searched his eyes for a moment as trying to figure out if he actually meant what he’d said. “If that’s true then why do I have bloodstains all over my clothes?” 

“Because the world is a fucked up place full of fucked up people. It doesn’t make them right.” 

Raven nodded and went silent after that but she wasn’t really watching TV. Her thoughts seemed to be elsewhere. Then after sitting there for about ten minutes lost in thought she leaned a little closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. Logan didn’t move. A few minutes later Raven was asleep. He was rather tired himself. He needed more sleep in recent years than he ever used to. He thought about staying where he was and just letting Raven sleep against him. He was too old for this sleeping sitting up bullshit though. He needed actual rest. So he figured he just get up carefully and go to bed. She could sleep the rest of the night on the couch. He’d even give her a blanket before he left. Except Raven panicked when he tried to move away from her. The moment he moved she gave a startled gasp and scurried across the couch as if to get away from him and then she just curled up into a ball hugging her knees protectively. 

“Hey...it’s alright…” Logan said, trying to say something to ease her panic. 

She gave several more panicked gasps as if she hadn’t really heard him. 

“Raven...calm down no one is going to hurt you here…” he tried again. 

She wasn’t listening or maybe she just couldn’t hear him. He decided he’d just walk away and leave her to sort out the mess in her head on her own. There was apparently nothing he could do to help her anyway. He got up and was almost out of the room before she called after him. 

“Logan wait!” 

He turned back around to face her. 

“I spoke with Charles today while you were gone. He seemed to be under the impression that you would look out for me if I needed it. Is there any truth to that?” She asked him still shaken. 

Logan sighed. One minute Charles was calling him a failure and the next he was making him out to be some hero. “Charles is nuts. I don’t know where he gets some of this stuff but it’s not out of my head.” he moved to leave for his room in spite of how scared and hurt Raven looked at that moment. 

“You said you wouldn’t murder me but if someone came here and tried to kill me would you just let them?” 

“Just because I won’t murder you doesn’t make me some fucking hero,” Logan told her. Charles had been filling her head with bullshit. He turned and headed back to his room. 

“If you’re not gonna give the medicine to Charles then I want it back,” Raven called after him. 

“What?” Logan went back to her more than a little angry. “What the fuck are you gonna do, sell it? Or have you been lying to me all along about what’s actually in there?”

“It is a cure, but not the cure for alzheimer's. It’s the mutant cure. There were only two left in existence. Everything I said about going to the lab was true except when they couldn’t help me I bought the mutant cure from them,” Raven told him. “I only had enough money for one.” 

Logan knew it was the truth this time but it still didn’t all make sense. “Then why not just tell me the truth from the beginning? What was with all the bullshit?” 

“Because I didn’t want Charles to know. He wouldn’t want the mutant cure. I was hoping that if you believed it was something else that he would accept it. I thought it would be a good thing because at least if he was human he couldn’t kill anyone with his seizures for while until the cure wore off. Charles got into my head the morning after I got here and he knew the truth anyway.” Raven explained. “If you’re not gonna help me then I want it back so I can be safe a while longer.” 

Without a word Logan took the blue vial from his front shirt pocket. He glanced down at the liquid. Raven was right. Everyone would be better off if Charles were free of his mutation for as long as he could be. Everyone except for Raven. 

“The answer to your question earlier,” Logan began, “It’s no. I wouldn’t just stand by and let someone kill you. I wouldn’t let them hurt you either.” He put the vial on the bookshelf next to him and he went to bed. 

The vial of blue liquid was still sitting on the shelf when Logan got up late the next morning. Raven had already brought Charles his breakfast and was in the kitchen baking something else. He went about his routine that morning without talking to her. He brought Charles lunch when the time came and then he dragged himself through another day of work. He returned home after 2AM and found Raven on the sofa reading a book. He had something to eat and then he joined her and turned on the TV like he had the previous night. 

It surprised him a little when she almost immediately leaned over and hugged him but he couldn’t say that he really minded. He moved a little to put his arm around her and she settled down with her head against his chest. He didn’t notice exactly when she fell asleep but by the time he turned the TV she was sleeping soundly in his arms. He didn’t want a repeat of her previous panic. He supposed he could sleep on the couch this one time. He pulled down a blanket from the back of the couch and covered them both, then quickly fell into an exhausted sleep. 

Logan had nightmares that night. Raven woke him, shouting his name. He found her standing across the room as he sat there with claws out on both hands. “Sorry,” he said, catching his breath and retracting his claws. 

“Does that happen a lot?” Raven asked him, approaching the couch again. 

“Often enough,” he said. 

She sat down next to him and took a look at his knuckles which had yet to fully heal. “This is infected.” 

“Yeah, I noticed that.” 

“Let me help,” Raven left and brought back the first aid kit. 

He didn’t want her help but she seemed really invested in the idea of doing something so he let her bandage his hands like she wanted, watching her while she worked. Raven really was a beautiful woman, not in spite of her blue skin but because of it. The fact that people had hurt her for that made him more angry than he could say. Then his mind was brought back to a time when she had climbed into his tent on top of him and kissed him. Raven set the first aid kit aside and caught the way he was looking at her. She didn’t respond to it boldly like she might have years ago. Apparently she had been hurt enough that most of her earlier confidence was gone. Maybe he could help her fix that. He leaned closer to her and then he kissed her. Logan felt her gasp of surprise and then she was kissing him in return. He pulled her onto his lap and she molded her body against his own. It had been a long time since he had kissed a woman like this, too long. Then she was suddenly pulling away from him. At first he thought she might be angry but she only looked confused and anxious. 

“W-what are you doing?” she asked, looking worried. 

“What does it look like I’m doing?” 

“But I’m not...you’re doing this while I’m blue? No one does that. No one does that unless…” She bit back tears. 

“Unless what? Are you telling me that you’ve never been with a man in your true form?” 

“I have a few times but they were only using me. Once they got what they wanted out of me I was thrown out like rubbish. So just tell me what it is you want from me? Whatever it is I’ll just give it to you and save myself the hurt.” Raven said. 

“I don’t want anything,” Logan told her. “All I wanted was a kiss and maybe to take you to bed if you’d let me. I guess you weren’t ready for that.” 

She searched his eyes for a moment. “You’re actually serious?” 

He nodded. 

“I wish I could believe that.” 

“You don’t have to believe it,” Logan said, “Just decide if you want to kiss or not.” 

She didn’t think it over for long. Raven was soon kissing him again and in spite of her initial reluctance, she definitely wasn’t reluctant any longer. 

*********************

It took a few days for Logan to get used to waking up with a woman in his bed but after she had been there a week he didn’t want her to leave again. She made it easier. This whole existence being stuck in the desert caring for an old man, the constant fatigue and infections in his hands, the problems with his vision, the fact that everyone else he had known his whole life was gone, the nightmares that had plagued him for years, she made it easier to bear. 

They gave Charles the blue vial of medicine and once they were sure it had worked, they moved him into the house with them. Raven took care of Charles while Logan worked. She didn’t want to leave the house anyway after everything that had happened to her. She prefered to stay hidden inside so the arrangement suited them well. 

Logan woke up one morning at the end of the third week of sharing his bed with Raven and found her awake cuddled up next to him with a strange look on her face. 

“Something wrong?” he asked her. 

“Not really, it’s just something I can’t quite figure out....” Raven began and he waited for her to continue. “Why...why are you so good to me?” 

“Why shouldn’t I be?” 

“Don’t do that. Don’t answer a question with another question….It just doesn’t make any sense. Every day I keep waiting for you to ask me to do something for you. To change forms and go steal something for you...or to just pretend to be someone you like better for a little while…” she was starting to cry. “And you never ask for anything...I can’t figure out what it is that you want.” 

“Raven...the only thing I want is you, just the way you are.” Logan told her. 

“You really mean that don’t you…?” she said, realizing he had spoken the truth. 

“I really do,” he said, pulling her closer to hug. 

After that day Raven seemed more relaxed. She and Logan settled into a routine of caring for Charles and for each other. Often they would argue, Raven didn’t appreciate Logan’s moods sometimes or his silence. Other times he wanted her to stop being so damn helpful all the time. He didn’t need new bandages on his hands and he didn’t need to talk about whatever his fucking problem was. All he needed was a beer and maybe some peace and quiet. But he never once told her to leave him the fuck alone like he wanted to do so many times. He didn’t say it because he loved her. He loved the rare occasions when she laughed. He loved waking up next to her. He loved how beautiful she was but he didn’t tell her any of that because he was sure that as soon as he said it, he would lose her. 

Then one morning several months after she had started living there Logan came back home at 2AM and found the front door left open. If that wasn’t worrying enough, there were drops of blood trailing from the door into the kitchen. The kitchen was a wreck with overturned chairs and broken items thrown around. A gun was left sitting on the kitchen table and Raven was on the floor trying to bandage a bleeding gash on her leg. 

“Shit,” Logan said, grabbing the first aid kit and getting down on the floor to help her. The cut was deep and she wasn’t healing rapidly enough on her own to do much about it. “This is gonna need stitches.” 

She nodded agreement, keeping pressure on the wound while he set to work stitching her up. On closer inspection he could see that she had bruises on her face “What happened?” he asked. 

“Someone broke in. Three men. They knew I was here. They were on some sort of witch hunt.” Raven explained. “Charles was sleeping with his earplugs again because he thinks it keeps out the voices and he never even heard me fire the gun.” 

“I take it you shot one and then they took off?” Logan said, noting the blood that went out the front door. 

“Eventually yeah,” Raven said. 

“Eventually,” he repeated the word, realizing what it meant. It meant that they had stayed a while. They had stayed long enough to really hurt her. He was so angry, so enraged, that he couldn’t think straight. He found it difficult to keep his hands steady enough to finish her stitches. Once they were finished she caught his arms as he tried to stand. 

“Logan don’t,” she said firmly. 

“Don’t what?” He said, picking up the gun, reloading it and passing it to her. “Don’t go after them? Why the fuck should they get to live after what they did to you?” 

“They’ve probably already started gathering up their friends to come back here. It’s what those kind of people always do. They need a mob to lynch someone. We should just leave.” Raven argued. 

“I’ll just have to find them before they reach their friends,” Logan said, backing away from her. “Keep the gun handy,” he said as he left. 

He couldn’t track as well anymore as he once could but Logan could still smell enough of the trail that he was able to find the three men. He caught up to them at some sort of campsite where they had put up tents and were drinking beer around a fire. They never even saw him coming. 

Logan returned to Raven with blood all over his clothes. She limped over to where he stood and she started to cry. “You’re gonna have more nightmares about killing people.” 

“Not this time.” Logan told her. 

She shook her head. “You still will. You always do.” Raven reached up and started to help him take off the jacket he always wore to work. “So much blood…and now look at your hands…” 

Logan said nothing as he watched her fuss over the injuries to his hands, the blood on his white shirt, the concern that he might have nightmares. She was telling him that he shouldn't have gone after those men. They should have just taken Charles and left. She seemed to believe that he was lucky he hadn't gotten hurt and she just wouldn't shut up about all the reasons why he shouldn't have gone. After what those men did to her, she was standing there more worried about him than about herself. And he suddenly realized why. She loved him. 

“Raven…” Logan interrupted her worried rambling. “Raven, I’m okay. I’m fine. My hands will heal and I don't care about any fucking nightmares. I don't care because anyone who hurts the people I love can't expect to get away with it.” 

Raven let out a small gasp at his words. “Did you just…?”

“I did. I love you.”

“I love you too,” she said, throwing her arms around him. “I've been wanting to say that for weeks but I was too scared to say it first.” 

He only nodded as he held her. He understood the sentiment exactly. 

A week later Raven was mostly healed of her injuries from the break in. Logan had already gone to bed after work and Raven entered the room wearing a black tank top and those yoga pants with the damn blood stains. 

“Don’t wear that,” he told her. He hated looking at the blood. Blood on himself was nothing. Blood on the people he hurt was nothing. But not on her. 

Raven looked down at herself and then back at him. “But I…” There was worry in her eyes. 

“That’s not what I meant,” Logan clarified. He hadn’t made love to her since the incident a week earlier. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her after what those men had done. Now she thought he was asking her to take her clothes off or maybe asking her to change forms. “I only meant I wish you’d wear something without blood on it.” 

“Oh,” Raven responded to that by taking off everything and climbing into bed next to him unclothed. She pressed close to him and kissed him. 

“Does this mean you’ve healed?” Logan asked her, holding her close. 

“Mostly,” she told him with a small smile and she kissed him again. 

“Mostly? Raven, I don’t want to hurt you.” 

“You won’t hurt me,” she told him. “I trust you.” And she kissed him again.


End file.
